


and there was happiness (shining through the window pane)

by wanhedalycia



Category: The Fall (TV 2013)
Genre: Cuddles happen, F/F, Short One Shot, alternative universe, featuring old white men in a theatre, first fic I've written in a while, mentions of a streetcar named desire and blanche, reed gets sad, started off cute then got a bit angsty, the most disjointed thing i've written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 13:06:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10787301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanhedalycia/pseuds/wanhedalycia
Summary: "Was that a streetcar joke I detected in your texting?"orreed pouts and appreciates her girlfriend, and stella appreciates her girlfriend appreciating her





	and there was happiness (shining through the window pane)

**Author's Note:**

> hello! first time writing for this fandom. haven't posted in a while and it shows, but i couldn't resist the cuteness that is stella and reed talking about streetcar. let me know what u think :)

**reed**  

**14:55** Ur gonna have to answer my texts one of these days 

**14:57** I resent how busy u are 

**14:58** I thought this meeting was gonna be quick 

**15:03** I have sushi waiting 

**15:04** Stella 

**15:04** Hey, Stella 

**15:05** Stella

**15:05** Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 

**15:05** Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 

Reed jumped as she felt a cold pair of hands lightly cover her eyes, a familiar perfume flooding her nose as the corners of her lips quirked up. 

"Guess who?" 

"Oh, I don't know, could it be someone who is very late for a lunch date?" 

A breathy chuckle filled the room and Reed's smile intensified as her girlfriend removed her hands from their position and sat in the chair in front of her, slipping off her heels and pulling her feet up onto the chair before reaching out her hands like a child for the sushi. 

"Uh-uh, what's the magic word?" Her dark and perfectly manicured eyebrows rose teasingly, and Stella rolled her eyes. 

"I'm sorry I'm late for the lunch date but my job involves working around alive people who can and will protest if I leave a meeting early. Now gimme." 

"You're lucky I love you." 

The blonde woman grinned at her, grabbing the box of food and tearing the lid off gleefully. "The luckiest." Wasabi and soy sauce was added. "Oh my god, this looks divine." 

"Thought I'd try out the new place. It's on my way here from the hospital." 

"How was work, by the way? Heard they found a body in the woods." Stella made a noise of appreciation as she bit into the sushi. 

"Bunch of drunk teenagers. The girl drank too much and they must have dared her to strip and run through the woods or something. She fell, knocked herself unconscious and choked on her own vomit." Reed smiled despite the morbid nature of her words and shrugged. She couldn't save the younger generations from their stupid deaths, only determine the cause of them. 

Stella rolled her eyes, taking another bite of her sushi. Wiping her mouth daintily with a napkin before she spoke, she smiled at the woman sitting across from her. "Was that a Streetcar joke I detected in your texting?" She asked. 

"I see where you got your title. You really are a stunningly good detective." Reed teased, laughing when the blonde uncurled one leg to poke her lightly. "Yeah, it was. Although you're nothing like her in real life, obviously." Stella raised an eyebrow in question as she finished the last bit of sushi and stood to bin the packet. "I had to study it for O Levels and I hated Stella. And Stanley." 

"What about Blanche?" 

"I just felt sorry for her, really. Kinda dug her own grave." 

"You don't think the whole situation was a bit tragic? I'll admit I was partial to Blanche." A small smile settled on her face. 

"Really? Did you study it?" 

"I was in it." 

"What?" A grin spread across Reed's face. "You were in it? Who did you play, Blanche?" Stella nodded, and the other woman's smile grew even more. "How old were you?" 

"Sixteen, I think." 

"Oh my god, I'm in the presence of an actress." Stella nudged her with her foot again, and Reed chuckled. 

"Shut up. No, it was fun. I enjoyed it." 

"I can imagine baby Stella on the stage, commanding everyone's attention just like you do now." Stella smiled and looked down, still not used to the awe Reed had in her voice every time she talked about her. She was not accustomed to the amount of respect they had for each other in the relationship - it still startled her seeing the affection in Reed's eyes when she would catch her gaze across a crowd of heads in a meeting room. 

"It was actually what pushed me into the police force." 

"How come?" 

"They cut out the rape in the school production. Nobody wanted to talk about it in such a conservative school and it made me really angry. They cut the part where Stanley hits Stella, too. This beautiful tragedy turned into yet another mess of trying to save a man from his own actions." 

"So you signed up?" 

"Yeah. I figured becoming a bodyguard was out of the picture." 

"I don't know, all five foot and two inches of you are very intimidating." Reed teased, grinning at Stella. 

"Shut up, you're the same height as me." Stella retorted, smiling back despite herself. 

"I have to go do some paperwork. Bring me coffee later?" She asked hopefully, smiling as she got up and leant down to kiss the other woman. 

"Of course. I'll see you." Stella smiled as their lips met. 

* * *

"And what, may I ask, are these?" 

"Tickets to date night." 

"They're for Friday." 

"Detection skills strike once again." 

"I thought I told you I had a meeting until late on Friday? With the detective team on the Lopez case?" Stella frowned, clearly remembering the conversation they had in her office the previous week. It wasn't like Reed to forget anything. 

"I changed it for you, to Monday. Shane likes me." Reed stood from her seat behind the breakfast bar to place herself in her girlfriend's arms, pinning Stella between her body and the kitchen counter. 

"Are you flirting with members of my detective team?" Stella said, smirking as she looped her arms around Reed's neck. She leant in for a kiss, lips meeting softly until the other woman stepped further into her space and pressed their bodies together, tongues reaching deeper and pulling a sound of satisfaction from the blonde's throat. 

Pulling back, Reed smiled and brushed their lips together again. "Only in the name of date night." 

"Well, then I guess that's perfectly okay." 

"Anything for love." 

"Exactly." Stella murmured against the tanned woman's lips, gasping as she felt Reed's hands on her thighs, urging her to slide up to sit on the counter. Persistent fingers were soon at the hem of her skirt, edging it up bit by bit as their kisses became more heated. "You do realise we're still in the kitchen?" 

"Never stopped us before." Was all she got in reply, before a hand slid further up her thigh and a wet kiss was placed on her neck. 

* * *

“I can’t get over all the straight white men staring at us right now.” 

“I absolutely cannot imagine you not being used to people staring at you.” Stella murmured in her ear as they made their way through the crowd and towards their seats, a light blush covering Reed’s cheeks at hearing her girlfriend’s words. 

“Sweet talker.” 

“You weren’t complaining last night.” 

“No, I wasn’t.” Reed smirked, leaning over to kiss her date and earning a few hushed whispers and looks from around her. 

“And what was that for?” 

Reaching to tuck a stray lock of hair behind Stella’s ear, she smiled as the lights gradually dimmed and signalled the play’s beginning. “Nothing. I just love you.” 

* * *

She was completely invested in it. The acting, the lighting, the stage, all of it transported her right back to the passion she felt for Blanche all those years ago. So completely invested, in fact, she almost didn’t notice the small movement next to her. But, attuned to Reed as she was, she looked over and almost balked at what she saw. 

The professor, clad in her leather jacket, was using the napkin they’d been given with their drinks at the interval to subtly dab at her eyes and the tear tracks that were staining her cheeks. Smiling a little to herself, she wrapped an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulder and waited the couple minutes she knew it would take for the play to finish. 

The house lights came up and Reed looked at her sheepishly, sniffling adorably. 

“There’s something in my eye, okay?” 

“Is it emotion, by any chance?” Stella teased as she ran the pads of her thumbs under Reed’s eyes, before gently pressing her lips to her cheek. 

"I want to cuddle." Reed pouted, making Stella laugh and causing her heart to melt all at once. 

"Right here? Or should we go home and do it?" Stella raised an eyebrow as she glanced around the rapidly emptying theatre, before back at her girlfriend's glistening eyes and grasping her hand, coaxing her from her seat. 

"Home sounds good." Reed mumbled, standing and wrapping her arm firmly around the blonde's midsection as they made their way out, Stella smiling fondly at her clinginess. 

The drive home was quiet, Reed holding onto Stella's hand as much as possible until they got back and collapsed onto the sofa together, Stella lying back and Reed lying on top of her, holding her weight with her elbows placed just above where the blonde's shoulders lay. 

"I'm sad. The play was sad. I don't remember it being that sad." Reed pouted again, prompting Stella to peck her lips gently. 

"I told you, it was a tragedy. It's meant to be sad. It was meant to be a message." 

"Yeah, but... I'm sad. And I'm picturing you being sad as Blanche. And it's making me more sad." She lay her head on Stella's chest, inhaling the other woman's perfume deeply and savouring the feeling of the soft silk shirt on her cheek. 

"You're meant to be sad. This is why I got so mad at the rape being cut out - we're meant to witness the devastation of a mentally ill person. This is the effect it's meant to have on people." Stella tried to console her girlfriend, but knew that if a performance really touched you, there was nothing she could do. 

"Do you think of yourself like Blanche? Is that why you like her so much?" 

Reed's soft question made her pause and think. Is that why she felt so deeply for Blanche? Did she see herself in the character? 

"I just pictured you after your father died being all alone and sad and self-destructive. It made me cry more." Reed's voice was muffled by Stella's shirt but she still heard her, her heart clenching at how much affection was laced around the words. 

"I think maybe a little," she replied tentatively, eyes darting to Reed's as the tanned woman tilted her head up so their eyes could lock. "I think I was alone and sad and self-destructive. But it made me a better person. It brought me to the police, and to helping people, and to you." She took a breath, startled at how open and honest she was being. 

"You think so?" 

"I do think so." She moved one hand from its place on Reed's back to her hair, lightly running her nails through dark locks and making the women on top of her shudder lightly and bury her head further into Stella's neck. The room was dark, only the small lamp in the corner of the room turned on which lulled both women into a comfortable trance. 

"I'm glad that you're here with me now but I don't like that you had to be sad for it." Her near-whispered words on her neck caused Stella to shiver. "I look at you sometimes and I can't imagine you ever being vulnerable." 

"But I have been vulnerable. You, Reed, you've never even shown a hint of weakness. You touch death every day and still go home to hug your girls." 

"That's because you do everything for the people you love.” Stella hummed in response, fingers still combing through her girlfriend’s hair. “I would do anything for my family.” Reed mumbled, fatigue suddenly settling on her and finding herself walking the line between sleep and wake. "I would do anything to see my girls happy. And to see you happy." 

Stella smiled as she felt Reed become heavier on top of her, clearly losing her battle with consciousness. "As would I, my dear. I love you." 

She was awake just long enough to contemplate the downfalls of falling asleep on the sofa and to hear Reed mumble back an answer, before letting sleep take her over too. 

 


End file.
